Warm Water Stray

These endangered turtles (Caretta caretta) rarely make it as far north as Nova Scotia. And when they do get here, carried along by the Gulf Stream, they often die in the colder waters of the North Atlantic. Sometimes they wash ashore on Sable Island – yet another reason for its sombre nickname, “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

This Loggerhead Turtle skull was found by longtime Sable Island resident and researcher Zoe Lucas in 2008. When we received it, the soft tissue was still intact, so we prepared the skull by placing it in warm water with an aquarium air stone. All the air bubbles kept the environment from becoming anoxic – or stinky, whichever you prefer.